GavinRuneblade

I'm looking to update my iMac's internals. I've got the oldest metal iMac out there, the 2007 model 24-inch.

Currently I have 2g of Ram, going up to 4 which is the most this thing can have. Where I'm stuck is what options I have, and what options I even want to consider as far as my graphics card.

Right now it's a Radeon HD2600.

What will work with my model of iMac and what is, err, one or two steps down from top-of-the-line at most. I don't like top of the line for the cost factor, but want to be close to that for longevity.

Any recommendations?

Not working happily on my iMac. Alt-Tab and returning to the game causes instant crash. Whole screen goes brownish-grey. Mouse works, nothing else. Have to Alt-Tab back out and force quit.

Used to be able to go in and out without a problem as long as I kept to only one or two programs running in the back.

That looks like a fun build. Here's a really hard question though: How could you mod it to fit fly for a travel power?

Umbral, do you have a purpled build for BS/Regen?

I'm looking at something to work on for my second build since my primary is just about finished. though that build you posted above gave me some interesting upgrades to think about.

As the person who mentioned team reactions to hurricane, I'll point out that I have never actually used hurricane while grouped. I have been asked not to use it on at least 8 occasions (I don't really count, but that is a rough number I'm sure is lower than reality). Including once after I had already respecced out of it.

That's just a measure of how much people hate knock powers. Or to be more precise, how much they hate the people who don't know how to properly use Knock.

@Dave: Just to throw this out for you in case you didn't know. Since I see you're sticking to SOs, a lot of people have the false impression that IOs are too expensive:

Cost of IOs vs SOs (with thanks to Catwhoorg for the math). Cost of purchased SOs starting at level 25 and updating every 5 levels through 50 (so no "greening up" and you let them lose effectiveness, for the cheapest possible path): 266,112 Inf. Crafting a memorized generic level 25 IO: ~60,000 (salvage cost varies). You can often get less desirable Set IOs (Paralyze instead of Basilisk's Gaze for instance) for a bit more than SOs in the 350k to 650k range is not at all uncommon. Less if you buy the recipe and make it yourself.

Also, you can get SO-level of performance out of IOs as early as level 17 on the triples, which you can slot at level 14. SOs you can't slot until level 22 not counting the weird outlier SO's that spawn when an AV drops.

When you exemplar down later on IOs can potentially keep 100% of their bonus.

Example: Slotting Strangler with

Ruin - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 40
Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 43
Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 43
Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge: Level 43
Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 43

Gives a total bonus of: 93.18% Accuracy, 93.57% Damage, 76.8% Endurance Reduction and 93.18% Recharge Reduction. You CANNOT get bonuses this high from SOs. Best you could possibly do would be 66% Acc, 99% Dam and either 33 Recharge or 33 reduction.

If you then exemplar down to level 20, the IOs are still 93%, 93%, 76%, 93% while the SOs drop down to 20%, 30%, 10% respectively.

IOs: Cheaper, Higher Bonus, Let you Exemplar, and you can slot them sooner.

But if you want to go SOs, the no worries. Just don't do it because you think you're saving money or Sets are for later. etc.

On mine (currently 31) I found that snow storm and hurricane weren't helping me much. When I used them and when I didn't use them I pretty much took the same damage solo.

In teams snowstorm was a bit useful to stop runners and keep groups bunched long enough for AoE's to shred them. Hurricane was largely loathed and even if I didn't turn it on people would see it in my info page and send me messages asking I not use it.

I've respecced out of both and don't regret it one bit.

If you can, sell all your drops and you should be able to pickup a -Knockback IO pretty easily. You will greatly appreciate it! Edit: If you can't afford one, then look into the base enhancement buffs. There is a 1-hour buff that only costs 2 common salvage and 1 uncommon and gives you Mag 10 -kb for an hour that lasts through death.

Edit 2: Look into the really cheap hold sets (paralyze, etc). They have duals and triples that sell crafted for only a few hundred k inf around level 20-30. If you drop two duals or two triples into Vines you can get a much better set of bonuses and that will make the power a good bit more helpful. I found I really appreciated having it up when facing bosses so I could toss Strangler-Vines-Roots-Strangler and get the boss held, plus lock his pack out of melee with Roots. Cycling Strangler as soon as it comes up will keep them held, but the vines is great to lock them fast on the first cycle. Using some cheap sets starting right at level 18 you'll appreciate it.

I can give you plenty of advice on frankenslotting on a budget if you are interested. In the end cheap IOs are vastly cheaper than using SOs and you get higher bonuses as well.

I'll disagree with the advice in one area: Chain Induction is a spectacular power. It used to be buggy, but is currently fast, hard hitting, and a reliable AoE. Just don't use it to kill someone as it only jumps if the target lives. Great for hitting a boss or lieut who is surrounded by minions. I will always take this before I take Jacob's Ladder.

Also, procs test on every jump. This used to be the heard of the bugs, but it currently works fine.

Resurrecting this from the second page since there were no replies. No one has a vote on a good techie map?

Somewhere (and I've utterly failed to find it after trying a few times) there is a thread where Arcanaville is talking about levelling and exp per defeat and how the best ratio of xp to damage dealt is off of a +2 boss. I dunno if anyone in that thread had any good data that would help your mission, but it was relatively recent and might be helpful if you can track it down.

Large insps = great source of money for low-level characters.

Can you edit the post to be readable? All the code makes it hard to see the build.